Wet snuff is a variant of nicotine addition mainly seen in the US and Scandinavia and particularly in Sweden, where this variant is used on a daily basis by approximately 20% of men.
Although wet snuff is not implicated in the cardiovascular and lung disease morbidity and mortality caused by smoking, the content of nitrosamines poses a potential hazard for some cancer diseases. It is therefore of interest to make available to consumers a snuff-like product while minimising this potential hazard.
The vascular area at the administration route and the fact that the snuff is fixed over a long period of time gives an opportunity for both a quick and thorough uptake of nicotine over the mucosa. To develop a new medicated snuff bag—Snuff Similar—with similar nicotine effects but without the carcinogenic risks derived from the tobacco was the objective for this project. To reach other countries in Europe and worldwide, one approach would be to have a product that is more clean and more socially acceptable in its appearance. By using the white cellulose complex this could be achieved. A more socially acceptable alternative might also potentially increase usage, especially among women.
Due to the slow wetting and thereby release, migration and absorption of nicotine, nicotine release from snuff bags is incomplete in vivo. A present snuff variant on the market is “General white” (Swedish Match AB), has a loaded amount of 8.0 mg nicotine per snuff bag and an approximate in vitro release of 1.4 mg over a period of 30 minutes. The release in vivo is consequently less than 20%. This is mainly due to the low amount of saliva available to dissolve the nicotine and to the fact that the snuff bag is kept in place over the time of administration. Accordingly, in order to load as little nicotine as possible, there is a need for snuff bag compositions, which have a higher total release of nicotine. This will also imply that less nicotine is used in the method for preparation of such snuff compositions, which is also beneficial from an economic and an environmental point of view.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present invention.